Woman Pleads Guilty: Insurance Fraud
In Magistrates Court this morning [Sept.19], 37-year-old Sri Lankan national Ms Chandima Gangula Arachchige pleaded guilty to a charge of defrauding BF&M Insurance of $7,884.
At the time of the offence, on 20 August 2010, Ms Gangula Arachchige was employed by the HWP group of companies. She had submitted a request for re-payment of medical expenses for surgery that was supposed to have taken place in Sri Lanka on a person covered by a BF&M health insurance policy.
The total value of medical services said to have been received was $9,162 but the policy repayment was for $7,884. These funds were paid by BF&M.
On further and later investigation, it transpired that the person on whose policy the claim had been made was in Bermuda and had been in Bermuda all along.
Investigators had taken possession of a computer memory stick used by and belonging to Ms Gangula Arachchige and the paperwork found on that device proved to be an exact match with the BF&M invoices.
Magistrate Archie Warner ruled that she must remain in custody until she appears for sentencing on Wednesday 21st September. She is also currently awaiting sentence on a similar matter.
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See..its not just black bermudians who behave badly..
amazing that so much stupidity can be crammed into a 9 word sentence…..unless you were trolling and i fell for it.
lol – trolling – yes, to a degree. Its just that on some crime stories the comments can be very negative towards black bermudians. When nationalities are not revealed, some folks automatically assume its a black bermudian. not saying you are guilty of it.
Who says it’s just black bermudians who behave badly??? It may appear that blacks behave badly all the time because blacks seem to only be mentioned in the media, with their photos. But trust me, blacks are not the only ones who behave badly. Not by a longshot.
Must be a “Catch 22″ ………bwahaaaaaa
hmmmm – just wondering how many foreign nationals have been doing this and obviously not been caught? Thanks Argus for staying on top of these things, are my premiums going to go down as result?
Once she has been committed send her right back. First plane smoking. And also make sure she is banned on return even if it is a vaca. Insurance fraud.. .whats next?
I could have sworn that when this story was initially reported the amount was in the $20K range…
This is an additional charge to the $20K matter.
Why is it that the insurance companies do not call the places to make sure that these people have actually gotten the procedure done before even paying them? With all the people in the world pulling stuff like this, I would assume that they would have measures in place to make sure that they do not get cheated.
Bf&m pays a company for worldwide services that is supposed to confirm hat they did take place…
@Huh?! Yea how did this charge get dropped to just $7000+ It was first reported around $78,000. I am not sorry for BFM or HWP. If they would have hired a qualified Bermudian, I don’t care what your color, this may not have happend to that extent! There are plenty of stories about companies or people slipping out of Bermuda in the dead of night or just folding, leaving our Bermudian workers without pension and govt social fees not paid. I bet she aint going to do any time in jail!!!
This charge is in addition to the first incident of $68,000. This time she used someone else’s policy to collect from BF&M.
So I’m sure she has sent the stolen funds back home…how do we get the funds back? do they have to be repaid or is her prison sentence (more money at our expense)considered to be compensation..SMDH….
The perps of white collar crime usually cashes in big and receives small sentences when caught . Disgusting woman .
I am not sure how this “fraud” slipped through the cracks!
I am currently in a hotel room in Boston as my husband is at Lahey.
His BFM case worker located in Canada is constantly contacting me and the international office at Lahey to confirm and approve everything before it even takes place!
My prayers are with you Ms. Whitehead !!!
My father lost the sight in an eye becuase it took a longer than expected time for the insurance company to approve his procedure for overseas treatment. If we had gone without their approval we stood the chance of the claim being denied….I think she found the loophole…If you are overseas and require medical assistance it is covered…but if you are in Bermuda and leave for medical assistance it needs prior approval. Just a guess but this sounds like it is how she was able to do it and it not be detected right away.
i hope she made to pay all the money back before she leave is island and i hope she is put on stop list so she can not come back to bermuda there must be someone else involed with her
I hope she did’nt have a job that a Bremudian could do . With so many let go from HWP it would be a shame . Make her pay back the money and send her home make her pay for her own tirp back .I’m thinking she can with all the money she got and has taken that we don’t know about i don’t think this is the first time she’s done this
Word has it she use to work for a small firm that was milking their clients out off money thus putting so out of business so it might not have been the first time.